1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to advanced input device technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to keyboards that incorporate one or more touch pad, virtual human interface device (HID), and projector functions.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Keyboards, touch pads, and mice are human-computer interface devices which were historically separately developed and remain separate devices today. Therefore, in a typical portable computer, although a touch pad is located either at a top portion or at a bottom portion of a physical keyboard, the keyboard and the touch pad are controlled separately and operate independently. Similarly, an external mouse is either connected directly through a USB port, or wirelessly through a wireless controller (e.g., a Bluetooth module). These conventional human-computer interfaces not only have large “footprints,” these separately controlled and independently operating components do not fit very well on a device that has serious space limitations (e.g., a cellular phone). Therefore, to minimize the required space for a human-device interface, touch screens or touch displays have been introduced into many portable and mobile devices recently to implement virtual keyboards, and touch-tracking functions. However, during operation, such a solution sacrifices a major portion of the screen or display to display a virtual keyboard. For this reason, a physical mini-keyboard is still often included in many cellular telephones to avoid burdening the display and to allow easier data entry. In these devices, a user would suffer the inconvenience of switching back and forth between manipulating a cursor at the touch screen and entering data using the keyboard.
Many attempts at improvement have been devised, such as displaying a virtual keyboard on a touch screen, and the “magic mouse” that is introduced by Apple Computer. Some touch screens limit the touch-tracking area to the display screen, so that the touch-tracking function is not extended to control buttons, or to control the cursor outside of the display area. The magic mouse provides a 75% touchable area on its surface, so that multi-finger gesture tracking may be implemented over the touch pad on top of the mouse. However, while the magic mouse supports full surface area touch-tracking functions, no keyboard function is provided.
The small form-factor of the input devices makes it difficult for a user to share information with others and to enter data quickly. Such difficulties persist even in a typical slate type device (e.g., an eBook or an iPad), where a larger touch screen is provided. Other improvement attempts include a foldable keyboard and a virtual laser projection keyboard. These devices support larger physical and virtual keyboards for easier data entry, but lack touch and navigation functions. Moreover, such devices typically still require pairing with a separate touch pad to allow finger motion tracking and cursor navigations.
Meanwhile, portable projection display technology advances include laser, Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS), Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Liquid Crystal On Silicon (LCOS), and Digital Light Processing (DLP) projectors. Some of these projectors have been provided as stand-alone devices, or are embedded inside mobile devices as pocket projectors. Like conventional external large projectors, these newer stand-alone pocket projectors can provide a larger display, but provide relatively inflexible control functions represented by the few control buttons provided. Full data input and sophisticated touch capabilities have not been provided.